It can be difficult to recognize when you are being your own worst enemy. Think about it, sometimes we’re harder on ourselves than we need to be. Other times, we call it preparing for the harsh reality that comes from outsiders looking in. The real reality is, only we can control our actions and thoughts. Which has a huge impact on the things that we manifest within our lives. So here’s 7 signs that you are your own worst enemy and how you can fix it.

Negative self criticism

Self criticism can be a great thing! It’s good to be able to identify our shortcomings when it comes to us being lazy or unmotivated. However, there’s such things as taking your self criticism too far! If you find that you’re judging yourself too much and finding faults constantly, then you’ve taken it to an unnecessary level. Cut yourself some slack and don’t over analyze every single mistake.

No self motivation

Those webinars, podcasts, inspirational quotes, online courses and anything else you look to for inspiration shouldn’t be the only thing what motivates you. If you find that can’t motivate yourself without someone else pushing you, then that’s a huge problem! Relying on other people can be detrimental and self sabotaging (more on that below). To begin the process of self motivating, start telling yourself inspirational things that’ll trigger your mind to think positive, motivational thoughts.

You prefer staying comfortable

You rather not put yourself out there and prefer to stay where you feel content/comfortable. That’s fine and dandy if you don’t have any goals or dreams that you wish to achieve. Yes, it’s so much easier to take the shortcut and stay in your happy place but where’s the accomplishment in that? When we put our minds to something, work towards it and attain the goal at the end it brings a sense of appreciation. Always remember, that if it were easy then everyone would be doing it.

Set unrealistic goals

It’s great to be ambitious and set goals for ourselves BUT they need to be realistic. Do you find yourself hardly ever being able to finish your to do list? Or feeling completely burnt out after completing it? These are warning signs that you’re overworking yourself. Nonetheless, what a great way to make yourself feel like a possible failure if you don’t complete it. Putting too much on our plate by setting unrealistic goals is a formula for disaster. Instead of biting off more than you can chew, set one to three goals that you know you can achieve in a timely manner.

Don’t appreciate the small things

Do you tend to only focus on the big things and disregard the small? It’s easy to breeze through life with only the “big picture” as the focus. Yes, we might want that dream career, car or house but are we taking time to appreciate what we have now? Take a second to appreciate the things you do have and the small wins you’ve accomplished. Did you workout today? Cross something off of your to do list? Progress is progress and that’s all that matters!

Overthinking/analyzing

We’ve all had our moments of overthinking and over analyzing. . . going around in circles with no one else but ourselves. Then we bring light to assumptions that can be false and are quite unnecessary. It’s important to think about matters and the outcomes that our decisions can make. However, trusting our instincts are typically the way to go! If that doesn’t suffice, a simple pro/con list will help to put things into perspective.

Self doubt

Do you oftentimes tell yourself that you can’t do something? Or have you failed at something and in result think you can’t do it at all? These are typical signs of self doubting at its best. More often than not, I’ve personally found that self doubt is nothing more than a choice. That decision to not try again and see if you can reach your highest potential. The fear of failure more so than the act of even trying. If we all listened to our “failures,” then there’d be no successful leaders to look up to.

The solution to defeating your own worst enemy is being able to identify their voice. Keep your eyes open and stay aware. . . don’t let the enemy hold you back!

Ashley is the Founder of MissAshleyAllison.com, a lifestyle blog dedicated to helping millennial women find their balance and manifest the career of their dreams.

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